Executions suck
by WinButler
Summary: The last moments of Remus Lupin's life, spent with the one he loves the most. SLASH RLSB . Giftfic. Oneshot.


A/N: This was written for a friend's Christmas present. There are two more one shots in the series. (Drarry and Snermione). I thought I might as well post them, though I gave her a hard copy. For anyone who has read Frozen, this is my "other project". I can now get on with Frozen, and will be updating asap. Promise. This one's for you, Han!

Executions suck

"It's almost time."

"No it isn't, it isn't, we've still got time."

The fair haired young man gazed imploringly into his lover's eyes. "No, we don't."

The young man opposite, with his shaggy black hair matted to his flushed face, felt tears begin to spring into his once-mischievous blue eyes. "But...you can't go yet. What will I do?"

Remus Lupin thought. "You'll grow up. You'll go into the ministry, like James, and you'll marry some beautiful girl. You'll live."

The other shook his head. "No I won't. How can I? When the only thing that I've had to live for for the past seven years is about to be ripped from the world? From me?"

Remus gave him a baleful glare. "You have many things to live for, Sirius. You have family."

Sirius gave a derisive laugh. "Family? What family? I have no family...apart from you."

"You have friends. James. What about James?"

"James is my best mate. But...he's just not the same. And I'm sure he'd say I wasn't the same as Lily. And as for Peter...he's hardly worth sticking around for, is he?"

Remus gave him a playful slap on the arm. "Be nice."

Sirius clenched his fist. "Why?" he asked in his quietest, most dangerous voice. "Be nice? Why the fuck should I? You were nice all your life. You never did a thing to hurt anybody, and now you're going to be...to be..."

"Sirius, stop. This is crazy."

"Crazy, is it? Nice to know you feel the same way I do, Remus. If I was the one about to be executed would you be sitting there like a lemon and just accepting it? Nice to know, that."

"Sirius! Shut up! Do you think I like this any more than you? I'm about to die, for fuck sake!"

Sirius was quiet. He had never heard Remus swear in all the time he had known him. Not even in the bedroom.

"I – I'm sorry. But I have to be strong because I know you can't be."

"Can too."

"Can't."

"I hate you sometimes, Remus."

"I love you all the time, Sirius."

Sirius' eyes now overflowed with pain and regret. He gave in and broke down in pitiful tears. "M – Me too..." he sobbed, throwing himself into his lover's arms.

For a few minutes they sat there, just holding each other, the seconds, the minutes passing by in fleeting instants, moments the two would never have again. Sirius breathed heavily in Remus' arms, the young man's faded brown jacket mopping up his tears. His stomach grumbled.

"Sirius, it really is almost time. You'd better get going. You look, and indeed sound, like you haven't eaten a thing in days."

"I haven't. I'm sure I can wait half an hour to get some food. Unsurprisingly, it's not the most important thing on my mind right now."

Footsteps were heard along the empty, dank corridor.

"Footsteps?" murmured Sirius. "Dementors glide..."

Remus shook his head, not wanting to explain. "I – I think it's Macnair."

Sirius jerked his head. "Walden Macnair's dad? Why is he here?"

Remus swallowed, turning away. "He's here to perform the execution, Sirius." Remus' own eyes now began to fill with tears, though why now of all moments, he could not tell.

"What? What are you talking about? The Dementors..."

"The Dementors nothing. I won't be taking the Dementors' kiss. They're going to kill me...like you would dispose of a dangerous creature. I suppose that is, after all, what I am."

"What the fuck do you mean?" snarled Sirius.

Tears burst forth. "What do you think I mean?!"

"Fuck!" cried Sirius, slamming his fist against the cold metal bars of the cell, rattling them, calling echoes and moans of dying prisoners. "Shut up! I can't take this! It's fucking disgusting!" he punched the cell wall hard, shattering the bones in two of his fingers.

"Calm down...Look what you've done now." Said Remus in his most scolding tone. "That's going to hurt tomorrow."

"It hurts now." Said Sirius through gritted teeth, forcing a smile from Remus.

"You stupid thing. Come here." Demanded Remus, taking Sirius' fingers in his hands and examining them.

Sirius broke the comfortable silence after a moment. "Remus...there won't be a tomorrow."

"Hm?" asked Remus, still inspecting the shattered digits.

"There won't be a tomorrow for you. Do you realise that? You won't wake up next to me tomorrow morning, and poke me awake. And we won't have a tug of war over the covers, because we're cold because it's November even though we're lying next to each other?" Sirius felt the lump in his throat begin to rise, and his eyes begin to prickle. "And we won't fight it out over who gets to use the bathroom first. And you won't get to stand there looking halfway between irritated and amused when James and I race to the Great Hall for breakfast."

Remus looked halfway to amused now. "And?"

Sirius swallowed. "And...and when I feel cold and lonely at night time I can get in your bed and hug your bear and hog the covers and have both pillows. But I'll still be cold, and I'll still be lonely because you won't be there."

Remus sighed, suddenly serious. "We'll see each other again...someday."

"I know. Are you going to stay here? As a ghost, I mean?"

Remus shook his head. "No, I don't think so. I don't want to wander here alone for the rest of eternity. I can wait a few decades for you. I know we're only seventeen, but let's face it, you're so clumsy you'll probably set yourself on fire tomorrow trying to cook breakfast. Then you might get to join me." He laughed, but was silenced by Sirius' bleak expression.

"Maybe I should join you anyway...I mean, what is the point staying here if I can't be with you?"

"Don't talk like that. I want to see you live a proper life, with all your friends. You have a future ahead of you. Don't throw your life away mourning me, and don't you dare think about trying to come after me."

Sirius bowed his head. "OK. I promise."

They turned their heads to see a tall, forbidding looking man standing outside the dreary cell – Walden Macnair Senior, Chief Executioner for the Ministry of Magic.

"OK, kids. Time's up."

Sirius clenched his fists in anger again, but Remus held him back.

"OK, I'm coming. Give me a second." He turned to face Sirius, and procured a pair of letters from his pocket. "OK. This letter is for my parents. Give it to them at the funeral, OK? There's just a few things I had to explain to them. And this one is for James. Go back to the common room and give it to him now, OK?"

"What's in there? Or am I not meant to know?"

"Nothing much. Just me telling him to look after Lily. And you."

Sirius nodded. "No letter for me, I see?"

Remus smiled wanly. "I don't think there's anything I can say to you that hasn't already been said. I love you. And I'm really going to miss you up there."

"Well we're really really going to miss you down here."

"I'd better go. You can't come with me, can you?"

Sirius shook his head. "I wish I was strong enough to watch. Hell, I wish I was strong enough to hold your hand. But I'm not." With that he grabbed Remus by his greyish white shirt collar and pulled him into a searing kiss.

Remus stepped outside the cell as Sirius sat on the small, degenerate bed, tears silently falling down his cheeks.

"Goodbye, Sirius."

"See you soon, Remus.

"I love you."

"I love you too. More than anything in the whole world."

And he was gone. Around the corner, out of sight, and out of Sirius' mortal life forever.

THE END


End file.
